Rhythm is essential for human music and speech. Are we the only mammal with a sense of rhythm? In a speculative research study released in Biology Letters, a group of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and Sealcentre Pieterburen reveal that seals can discriminate rhythm without previous training. Seals’ balanced capability might be connected to their capability to find out vocalizations, abilities that might have co-evolved in both people and seals.
Why are we such chatty, musical animals? Evolutionary biologists believe that our capabilities for speech and music might be connected: Only animals that can find out brand-new vocalizations– such as people and songbirds– appear to have a sense of rhythm. “We understand that our closest loved ones, non-human primates, require to be trained to react to rhythm,” discusses very first author Laura Verga. “And even when trained, primates reveal extremely various balanced capabilities to ours.” What about other mammals?
Seal rhythm
The scientists chose to check the balanced capabilities of harbor seals, animals understood to be efficient in singing knowing. The group initially produced series of seal vocalizations. The series varied in 3 balanced homes: pace (quick or sluggish, like beats per minute in music), length (brief or long, like period of musical notes) and consistency (routine or irregular, like a metronome vs. the rhythm of totally free jazz). Would baby seals respond to these balanced patterns?
The group checked twenty young seals being held at a rehab center (the Dutch Sealcentre Pieterburen) prior to being launched into the wild. Utilizing a technique from human baby research studies, the group tape-recorded the number of times the seals turned their head to take a look at the sound source (behind their backs). Such looking habits shows whether animals (or babies) discover a stimulus intriguing. If seals can discriminate in between various balanced residential or commercial properties, they may look longer or regularly when they hear a series they choose.
The seals looked regularly when vocalizations were longer, much faster, or rhythmically routine. This indicates that the 1-year-old seals– without training or benefits– spontaneously discriminated in between routine (metronomic) and irregular (arrhythmic) series, series with brief vs. long notes, and series with quick vs. slow-paced pace.
Evolutionary origins
” Another mammal, apart from us, reveals rhythm processing and vocalization knowing”, states Verga. “This is a s